Are You Spending Too Much on Hard Liquor?

You’re in the liquor store, looking to buy a few bottles of hard alcohol for a party. Maybe some rum or tequila, and definitely some vodka. But the choices seem limitless, and the prices range from affordable to “Are you kidding me with this?”

Is the expensive stuff worth it? Whether you want to enjoy a few rum and Cokes with your friends, or sip on margaritas as you enjoy the final weekends of summer, does it matter if you pay $10 a bottle or $100?

We asked the experts to find out.

Let’s start with the obvious question: Are you intending to drink any of these spirits neat (without ice) or combined with mixers?

If you’re drinking it neat, quality matters. There’s nothing standing between you and the alcohol’s taste, so you’ll definitely know if you’re drinking cheap stuff. But if you're planning to use booze as the fun ingredient in a cocktail, choices vary alcohol by alcohol.

Rum doesn’t have to be a top-shelf investment when used in classic drinks like mojitos to daiquiris. Most bartenders will tell you to save your cash and get on with the party.

“Rum is probably the best budget alcohol and is a notoriously great mixer,” says Ori Geshury, Director of Education at the Aqua Vitae Institute, a premiere bartending school in Philadelphia.

“For high quality overproof rum, like Wray & Nephew—63% alcohol—you shouldn’t be paying more than $20 a bottle and it’ll be more than enough for a party of seven,” he says. “However, if you can settle for a bottle of ‘good’ rum, the price can be as low as $13.”

When it comes to tequila, however, not all experts agree.

Seattle-based bartender Colin Jensen, who writes the bartending blog TheLibatory.com, feels that the quality of tequila doesn’t really matter in drinks like margaritas. “Any subtleties in flavor differences are going to be washed out by the lime and triple sec,” he says.

Not so fast, says John Brenes, catering chef of Olive and Vine, a farm-to-table restaurant in Glen Ellen, California. “My girlfriend and I went out and had margaritas,” he says. “Mine was made with Chamucos Tequila,” referring to the double-distilled tequila that starts around $30. “My girlfriend, however, used whatever their well tequila was for hers.”

The difference, he says, “was night and day.” The margarita made with the expensive stuff was noticeably tastier, while the version made with well tequila was just . . . meh.

“You're basically using lime juice and agave nectar, which doesn't really take away from the flavor of a distinctive tequila,” he says. “It absolutely comes through.”

Vodka, however, always belongs on the lower cost end of your liquor cabinet, which most bartenders contend should be essentially flavorless anyway.

“I find that for nearly everyone, vodka is vodka is vodka,” says Ashley Vinci, a bartender at Billy’s Restaurant in Roanoke, VA. “No amount of special filtration or extra distillation will change how pure and flavorless a vodka is—which is the goal usually, to make the spirit flavorless.”

The labels of a higher-end vodka may look more impressive, but in terms of taste, Vinci says that “people generally cannot tell the difference between a Stoli vodka and a Grey Goose vodka.”

If it doesn’t make a difference, then why do bartenders ask for your brand preference when you order a vodka cocktail? Jensen admits it has more to do with your wallet than your taste buds.

“In a bar, I’ll ask what a person’s preference is in those liquors, to increase the bill total for mixed drinks,” he says. “But it won't really change the drink and how it tastes.”

It might, however, change how you feel in the morning—at least about your finances.

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